


The Mating of the Leopard

by clamare (kirana)



Series: The Lore of Clan Clamare [1]
Category: Flight Rising
Genre: Dragons, F/M, Wind Flight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-08
Updated: 2014-04-08
Packaged: 2018-01-18 14:38:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1432156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirana/pseuds/clamare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What's a girl to do when life's all flat and boring and there's no one around to take her seriously?  Get scared by random passing Pearlcatchers?  I think not!</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Mating of the Leopard

        She was bored. Bored, bored, bored, bored. Sooooooo booooooored!

        She didn't know why Erion had wanted to go serve the Windsinger, anyway. They'd had such fun together! True, he wasn't _quite_ as good at hiding as she was, despite his stripes, but it's not like anyone else could've done better! She had to face it: she was the Hiding Queen. And the Fighting Queen. And the Jumping-Out-At-People Queen, too. And the best Spiral ever! Maybe it wasn't such a surprise her mate had left. It must have been hard to live in her shadow. Her beautiful, long, thin, and beautifully long and twisty shadow.

        She rolled her head over, so she could look at the sky through the leaves of the tree she was--of _course_ \--hiding in. Why couldn't someone come along and fight her? Then she could show off her mad awesome skills and have fun and preen and win! But no one was around and Yseult had banned her from the clan's lair while she had some passing Ridgebacks deal with the trifling matter of a tiny itty-bitty little baby huge- _tastic_ cave-in that maybe, possibly, let's-examine-all-the-evidence-before-jumping-to-conclusions-people may have been Feyace's fault. Well, it's not like it wouldn't've happened _anyway_ , those cracks were there looooong before she scraped them smooth so she could play hide-and-seek with the other Spirals in the clan.

        Not that there were many left. There'd been Erion, of course--but then he was all "serving Lord Dudemeister Windbro is my true _calling_ in _life_!". And Alerion and Mortiz and Zelkova (who was really just an honourary Spiral, given she was _actually_ a Pearlcatcher) went all crazycakes and said "Hot Dad needs a hot threesome to tend to him!" or something like that. Whatever! And that just left Tatenda and he was so _young_! Plus, although he tried hard, his speckled hide was no match for her awesome clown spots when it came to hiding.

        Now, if Lyune was still in the mood to play, it would be all different. But it was like she was a totally different dragon after she went and begged Lord Windsinger to scatter her colours! All flat and monochrome and not very camouflage-y at all! At least her mate still knew how to have fun, but Wildclaws hardly fit into her delicate little labyrinth under the lair! And right now they were both all fussy and worried about their last two puffs--apparently Naton and Moelwen were going to be training other just-out-of-puffhood dragons now, even though they were just barely adults themselves.

        Fall was all boring! It was all brown and drab and crispy and nothing like the crisp greens and yellows of summer. And the crispy! _How_ could she sneak up on people when the leaves all rustled or fell off the tree she was hiding in or otherwise _inconvenienced her an awful lot_?! Her life was so hard.

        She let her head slip off the branch it was on and slip slooowly downdowndown until . . . . She blinked and orange-y Fire eyes blinked back.

        "Uh, hi?" the strange Pearlcatcher said.

        She shrieked and her tail accidentally loosened and she fell from the tree with a thump. "Who are you?!" she demanded. He was all upside down. Or maybe she was. "Where did you even come from, I didn't even hear you!"

        He blinked at her. "The Blacksand Annex? And, uh, was that last thing actually a question? Because I wasn't exactly trying to be quiet."

        She rolled herself upright and lifted herself up on her body until she was taller than he was. It wasn't very hard--he was lying down and everything--but _she did it anyway_. Being the Fighting Queen was all about being intimidating. "A likely story! You, mister, are on Clan Clamare's territory!"

        He perked up at that. No, that was _wrong_ , he shouldn't be looking _happy_ about that! "Really?" he asked. "Because my clan sent me here--there was some sort of deal or something." His eyes got wide. "Wait--are you Feyace?" He thunked his head against his pearl and groaned. "Of course you are, that's just my luck."

        She snatched his pearl away from him, outraged. "Hey, hey, you need to be more careful with that!" she scolded, checking it over for any damage he might have done to it. Hmmm, it was still pretty small, he was obviously young. Geez, the _one thing_ she'd learned with all those fussy Pearlcatchers is You Don't Mess With The Pearl, Feyace, Not Even As A Joke.

        "That--that's _my_ pearl!" he shouted, lunging at her in an attempt to get it back. "Give it back before you break it!"

        Feyace whisked herself up into her tree, heading for the very top to stay out of his reach. "I'm not the one who was banging my hard head against it!" she shouted back. Except she should have shouted ahead, because there he was, just past the crown. She eeped and coiled herself back down the trunk when he tried to grab her. She was almost free and clear when she felt the very end of her tail grabbed. She tried to hold on to the tree, but her feet could only grab dead, dry branches and one of her hands was, of course, full of Pearlcatcher pearl and couldn't be used to anchor herself.

        "Let me go!" she cried, dangling upside down. She twisted so she could frown at the upstart _baby_ Pearlcatcher who had her by the tail.

        "Give me back my pearl!" he retorted, trying to shake her by the tail. Woo, shake a noodle by the tail--does most of the noodle actually move? Not if the noodle is a Spiral and is used to dragons trying to do that!

        " _You're_ just going to damage it like a silly puff!" She eyed where he'd grabbed her and began coiling herself up into a spring. Trap her, ha! She was the Fighting Queen! No one grabbed her by the tail who did not--eventually--regret it!

        "What are you doing?" he asked warily. She thought his grip had loosened a little, but . . . nope, he still had her tight. "Hey, what're you doing?!"

        Huh, as if she was going to tell him. Stupid little--big, whatever!--Pearlcatcher, smacking his pearl around like that! Finally, she was coiled up as tight as she could be. She twisted her head to look at him. "Let me go," she said calmly. Wooo, look at her, doing the diplomatic thing! "Or else." Or maybe not. Still, at least she gave him warning!

        He laughed at her. "Or else what?" he asked.

        "Or else . . . this!" She bunched up a little more, just enough to plant her feet against his side, and then she pushed and uncoiled herself violently, a spring just unloaded.

        He didn't stand a chance, of course. As soon as she was free, she looped back and wound herself around his neck and torso while he was still floundering from her mighty push. No way was he dislodging her now!

        "What--what are you _doing_?" he said, trying to pull her body away from his. As if _that_ was going to happen. Spirals were unusually tenacious when it came to grabbing things with their whole body!

        "You might as well give up!" she crowed. "I've got you and I'm not letting go!"

        "Yeah? We'll see about that!" And he started pumping his wings, rising higher and higher, until the tree she'd been hiding in was just a speck and she could barely make out the lair at all.

        Feyace whooped in glee. The world was her oyster from way up here!

        And then the Pearlcatcher folded his wings and _dove_. Well, she called it a dive, but, really, it was barely more than a moderately controlled fall. With some hard work and experience, it might, _might_ , become something she'd consider worthy of the name "dive", but he had a long way to go before _that_ happened.

        "Go faster!" she yelled in his ear. "Here, put your wings like _this_ and _this_!" She pushed his wings into the optimum diving form and the wind rushing by started rushing by _much faster_. It was awesome!

        "What are you doing!" he screamed at her.

        "Helping you, duh!" she shouted back.

        "But--I can't control this kind of dive!"

        Uh. Oops. Yikes, and the ground was coming up just a little faster than she really wanted, now that she really, truly, honestly, deeply _knew_ how inexperienced this dragon was with high-speed antics. "Okay, pull up!" she shouted. "Like _this_." And she she flared all six of her wings and pulled at his frantically until they snapped open and changed their dive into the sort of strafing run the Coliseum denizens would learn to hate.

        Except all that moving of the wings meant she kinda sorta lost her grip on his pearl. She lunged desperately, uncoiling herself as fast as she could, and _reached_ . . . .

***

        "You," the Pearlcatcher said lazily, from his vantage point on top of _the_ best sunning rock in the clan's territory, "are absolutely _insane_."

        She preened. "I caught your pearl, didn't I?"

        "It wouldn't have needed catching if you hadn't stolen it in the first place!"

        "But you were hitting your head against it and hurting it!" she argued back. "And, look, you've vomited disgustingly all over it and it's none the worse for wear now, is it?"

        "No thanks to you," he mumbled. She couldn't help but notice he hugged his pearl a little tighter and maybe shifted it a little further away from her.

        "What's your name, anyway?" she asked. She laughed a little. "I can't keep on calling you Idiot Pearlcatcher, after all."

        He opened one eye warily. "Masul," he said. "And you're Feyace and no one _told_ me you were _insane_."

        She tossed her head. "But it was fun!" she said brightly. "And I saved your pearl and gave it back to you and showed you the best sunning spot in the world!"

        "That . . . doesn't actually make you less insane?"

        She sniffed. "If that's a question, then, yes, _of course_ it does! Ad if it isn't, you really need to be more assertive!" He huffed and closed his eyes again. "Why were you coming here, anyway?"

        "Because you're obviously not the only insane dragon," he muttered. He heaved a sigh. "Okay, look, my clan kinda made a deal with yours to trade me away as your mate or something. But don't feel you have to agree, 'cause the deal made sure I wasn't ever going back anyway, whether or not we mated."

        She dropped her head backwards so she could look at him all upside down. "Why did they want to get rid of you?" she asked, curious.

        He sat up and gestured at his body--tiger and freckle and awesome sand and delicious chocolate. Mmmm, chocolate . . . . "They said I kept scaring people too much," he grumbled. "It's not like I did it on purpose or anything." He paused. "Well, often, anyway. More often than not, actually."

        She nodded understandingly. "I get it," she said. "No one really appreciates that good ol' rush of adrenaline, do they?" She rolled herself over and studied his smooth hide carefully. Yeah, he'd blend in like nobody's business. No wonder he scared people! And he was so quiet on his feet--had to be, to sneak up on the Hiding Queen. With her spots and his sneaky . . . everything, she was sure their children would be awesome at hiding themselves! "Let's make a deal," she said suddenly.

        "I don't deal with insane dragons," he informed her.

        She blew air into his face until he sputtered and moved his head. "I'm serious," she insisted. "Look, you're here _anyway_ and you're not quite grown up to be mating with anyone quite yet, so why don't we just hang out? Big important decisions can be made later. And it's not like Yseult will throw you out, she's too much of a soft touch for that. And she hasn't thrown me out!" Permanently, anyway.

        "I'm plenty grown up," he muttered grumpily, curling up around his pearl again.

        "I'll teach you how to flyyyyy," she said enticingly.

        "I can totally fly already!" he said, sitting up in his outrage.

        She snorted. " _Badly_ ," she said disparagingly. "No dragon knows more about flying on the Windsinger's home ground better than Spirals, okay?" Except maybe Skydancers. And Fae. But not Ridgebacks, they liked tunnelling more than flying. And Wildclaws and Mirrors just _ran_ everywhere, like their wings were supposed to be rudders or something. And Guardians were surprisingly graceful in the air, given their size. And--

        "I fly just fine when there isn't a crazy Spiral on my back moving my wings for me!"

        "Do you have anything better to do?" she asked him point blank. He just looked at her, jaw moving up and down and making no sound whatsoever. "Yeah, I thought so. It's not like I'm going to _force_ you to be my mate or anything. And I can show you all the best hiding spots around and tell you which dragons are the best ever to scare. And if we don't choose to mate, well, big deal! Puffs aren't the be-all and end-all of life, you know?" Except baby Spirals were the cutest things ever! Except for how cute baby Pearlcatchers were, all rolling their pearls all over the place.

        "Well," he said reluctantly, "I guess it couldn't hurt?"

        "Awesome!" she shouted, pushing herself to her full height. Vertical length. Whatever! "First lesson! How to be more assertive! Hint: it requires less lifting of the voice at the end of a statement."

***

        And so began the wonderful adventures of the Leopard and the Tiger, who were almost always seen with the Leopard adjusting the Tiger's wings for him. And they lived sneakily ever after and had bunches and bunches of cute--and exceptionally well-hidden--hatchlings. And they scared all the dragons, ever, and definitely did not have a lot of fun doing it, because that would be _wrong_. 

**Author's Note:**

> Uh. Yeah. So apparently Feyace is a lot less serious and far more self-absorbed than I thought? Really, she should maybe have been a Pearlcatcher. I swear I bought her as Spiral, really, I did. *checks her ancestry* Huh, there's a Ridgeback in there. Nope, no Pearlcatchers. For reference, [Feyace](http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=184811) and [Masul](http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=1781423).


End file.
